LIHAPIIRAKKA
INGREDIENTS and PROPORTIONS: DOUGH
3 oz butter
1 cup milk
1 oz yeast cake (or 1 package of dried yeast)
1/3 cup sugar
3 cups wheat flour
FILLING
1 large yellow onion
1 lb ground meat (mixed beef and pork)
1 1/4 cups
cooked rice (left-over rice is fine)
1 cup cream
1 egg
salt and pepper
PROCEDURE: (1) Make the dough: melt the butter and add milk. Heat
the mixture to 100 deg. F. Crumble the yeast into
a bowl. Add the butter-and-milk mixture and whip
it until the yeast as dissolved. Add sugar, salt
and flour and stir until it becomes a dough. Cover
the bowl, and let rise in a warm place for about
40 minutes.
(2) While the dough rises, chop the onion into very
small pieces, and put in a large frying pan. Add
the ground meat immediately and saut'^He for
10
minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cooked
rice and saut'^He this mixture another 5 minutes. A
dd
the cream, season to taste with salt and pepper,
and turn off the heat. Let the frying pan stand on
the stove, covered, until the dough is ready.
Preheat the oven to 450 deg. F
(3) Roll out the dough so it fits in a 12x16 inch bak-
ing dish. Put the dough into the dish so that the
dough covers the whole dish (this is the most dif-
ficult part; don't be discouraged if you have to
roll out the dough again).
(4) Add the filling on top of the dough. Whip the egg
and spread it over the filling. Bake it on the
bottom rack in the oven for about 20 minutes.
(5) When the pie has cooled off a bit; cut it into
pieces that are 1 1/4 inches by 6 inches (the
traditional size of lihapiirakka in Finland).
Serve.
Notes.
TIME-CONSUMING: 30 minutes preparation, 30 minutes cooking and cooling.
DIFFICULTY RATE: Fair
WARNINGS:
> While eating lihapiirakka, you can try the hard work of pro-
nouncing its name. "Liha" means meat and "piirakka" is just
"piirakka". The filling can of course be varied. Other
traditional Finnish fillings for other "piirakka"s are blue-
berries (with some potato flour on top) and cottage cheese.
COMMENTS:> This is an excellent-tasting stomachfiller. My dear mother
gave me this recipe when I moved away from home. She prob-
ably thought that it would give me that feeling of home. It
does. I have tried it on my friends, and it is always a hit.
My mother is from Finland.
Contributor Information
Name: Krister Valtonen
Dept. of CS, University of Linkoping, Sweden.
Email address: {seismo,mcvax}!enea!liuida!obelix!valtonen